


Tomorrow Will Be Ours

by Pline



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Friendship, McKirk can be read as friendship, Panic Attacks, Post-Star Trek Beyond, Survivor Guilt, Tarsus IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 06:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7789807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pline/pseuds/Pline
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaylah lost her father.</p><p>Jim never had one.</p><p>Jaylah survived years on her own.</p><p>Jim survived Tarsus.</p><p>Confessions are made, a friendship is born.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tomorrow Will Be Ours

**Author's Note:**

> The two prompts were:  
> \- Jim Kirk + Jaylah bonding over their fathers (with maybe a slight mckirk in the background)  
> \- something about Jim Kirk being a mentor to Jaylah like Pike was to him?

Sometimes Jaylah missed the planet she spent so many years on. That's strange, she thinks, she hated it, still hates it, it took so much from her, but in a way, it was easy.

She knew what she had to do and she knew she could only count on herself.

Now, though, she is at Starfleet Academy. She is always surrounded by thousand of people, no matter where she goes, she has rules to obey, she has places to go, things to do. She also has to wear that dreadful uniform.

It's too much. There are so many things she does not know that everyone expect her to be aware of.

(How could she have known she wasn't supposed to leave a class if she thought it was boring?)

She's been freed from that planet, but she's never felt more imprisoned.

Maybe she should have never left there, maybe she isn't made to be free.

She tries to tell Montgomery Scotty this, but he looks so worried, ready to travel back to Earth in an instant just to reassure her. She changes the subject, pretends everything is fine. He isn't fooled, but does not insist.

As days pass, she feels more and more like she made the wrong decision coming into Starfleet. She has friends over there, but no one would understand her or what she's been through. Still, she stands out.

She's the woman who saved Yorktown. She's the alien who spent years surviving alone on a hostile planet. She's the girl with no family.

One night, she comms James T. Kirk.

If there is one person she can confess to, it's him.

“Hello, Jaylah,” he says warmly. If he is surprised by her call, he does not show it. “Everything okay?”

“I am alright, James T. How are you?”

“Sure you're okay? You don't look so good.”

She casts her eyes down. Does she have the right to add to the weight on his shoulders? He carries the universe with apparent ease, but even heroes break, that's a lesson she's learned with her father.

(His screams still wake her up.)

“Jaylah, you can talk to me, you know that.”

“Do you think I deserve to be in Starfleet?”

He makes a startled sound, still she does not look up.

“Of course! Why would you think otherwise? Jaylah, what's going on?”

She does not move, she does not speak, she breathes hard. There are words trying to escape her throat, tears trying to break free, she can't let them out, won't let them out, she has to be strong, she can't break, she –

“Jaylah, listen to my voice. You need to calm down, it's okay, you're okay, you made it out, you hear me? Just breathe, it's okay, breathe. In and out, in and out.”

James T.'s voice brings her back from the edge. Her vision is blurry from the tears she refuses to shed, but her heartbeat is slowing down and she can fill up her lungs with welcome air.

“Sorry,” she mumbles.

“It's okay, there's nothing to be sorry for.”

At last, she looks at him. He is smiling softly, worry clearly written in his eyes, and she feels better already.

“Wanna talk about it?”

She shrugs, embarrassed.

“Hey, I won't judge you or anything. But if you don't feel like talking, it's okay too. Alright?”

“I... James T., why did I survive? Why didn't they? My dad, I... He died so I could survive. But I'm alone now, he's left me, and there all dead but me. It's unfair.”

“Oh, Jaylah. I think I know how you feel.”

“Yes?”

He looks sad now. James T. should never look sad, she thinks suddenly, and she regrets ever bringing this expression on his face.

“My dad too died so I could survive, me and a lot of people. I was born just minutes before he died, you know. I've always felt he was the wrong Kirk to have died that day.”

“That is wrong. You are a good and brave man. You deserved to live."

How can he think that?

“And you are a good and brave woman. Your dad would be proud of you, I know. You survived on your own for so long, but you're not alone anymore, okay? So don't feel bad for asking for help, we all care about you. Me, Scotty, everyone else on the Enterprise owe you their lives, we would have never made it out of the junkyard without your help, and Yorktown would have been wiped out. Maybe that's why you survive, maybe it's because you're going to be one of the best engineer Starfleet will ever know. Who knows? I, for one, am just glad you are alive.”

And for the first time in so long, Jaylah lets herself cry. She cries for what she has lost and for what she was forced to become. She cries for her new friends and family. She cries of sorrow and pain, of joy and relief.

She cries.

Despite the distance between them, she feels his presence with her, calm and strong and warm.

“Thank you, James T.”

“Not a problem.”

He bites his lower lip, looks away.

“What's wrong?” she asks.

“I know what it's like to survive a planet when so many have died. When I was young, I – well it doesn't matter anymore. But many people died and I didn't. I still feel guilty, I guess, because I survived. I found out there are no reason why someone dies or lives. There's no grand plan, there's no big boss making the calls. It's just us. We make it worth. You survived, so live. Live because they can't. Live because you deserve to.”

They remain silence, both looking back on their own personal hell. She wonders what happened to him. She will not ask though, she knows he will tell her if he wants to.

“How do you manage the guilt?” she suddenly asks, voice low and broken.

“I remind myself why I'm alive for.”

He smiles, it's still a bit sad but it's full of love.

“I've got Bones, he keeps me grounded. He always saves me, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him, and I don't mean because he's a doctor. He's, I don't know, he's everything. And I've got the Enterprise, and the crew, and now I've got you too.”

In that moment, she feels closer to that man than she has ever felt before. It's a companionship forged in shared battles and shared struggles. They understand each other because they have been through similar things.

“My dad would have liked you,” is all she says.

“You'll be okay, Jaylah?”

“Yes, James T. I've got a new family now, I am not alone anymore.”

They share a smile.

They are both survivors, both orphaned of their fathers, both ready to live and love and explore the universe.

**Author's Note:**

> I know the mention to Tarsus was small, but I couldn't help myself haha maybe I'll write more about these two, I love them so much.
> 
> What did you think? I hope you liked it!
> 
> Thanks for reading ;)
> 
> PS: Please excuse the mistakes, I should be sleeping but I couldn't stop writing.


End file.
